Battle of Badon

The Battle of Badon was a victory by Britons over Anglo-Saxons in post-Roman Britain, traditionally dated to the late fifth or early sixth century. Its location, date, participants, and details remain uncertain.

Gildas: Gildas was a sixth-century British cleric whose Latin work describes Britain after Roman rule. His account is the earliest surviving source to name the victory at Badon.
Location of the Battle of Badon: The unresolved question of where the Battle of Badon took place. Proposals range across southern Britain, with no securely identified battlefield.
King Arthur: A legendary British ruler and central figure in medieval Arthurian literature. Later tradition places Arthur at Badon, transforming the battle into an episode of his legend.
Gildas on the Siege of Badon: Gildas’s brief account of a British victory at the siege of Badon. It is the earliest description and does not identify a commander or precise location.
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae: A Latin sermon by Gildas criticizing the rulers and clergy of sixth-century Britain. It mentions Badon while presenting the battle as a turning point in Britain’s wars.
Date of the Battle of Badon: The unresolved chronology of the Battle of Badon in the late fifth or early sixth century. Different interpretations of Gildas and later chronicles produce competing dates.
Arthurian legend: The body of medieval stories about King Arthur, his court, and the knights of the Round Table. The battle’s association with Arthur helped carry Badon into a much larger literary tradition.
Bede on the Battle of Badon: Bede’s account of the British victory at Badon in his history of the English people. Bede interprets the battle as a prolonged respite from Anglo-Saxon conquest.
Bede: Bede was an early eighth-century Northumbrian monk and historian. His account links Badon to the period after the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain.
Historicality of King Arthur: The historical question of whether the legendary King Arthur was based on a real person. Arthur’s alleged command at Badon appears only in sources later than Gildas.

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